This Time Around
by fanfic1892
Summary: After the giant war, Percy and Annabeth finally had some time to relax and spend time together. Sadly, the Fates have other plans. With only each other for protection, they are sent back to the beginning to relive their demigod lives as twelve year olds. Who knows? Maybe things will be different this time around. (To avoid being mainstream I'll say this: I'm amazing at summaries)
1. Chapter 1

**I normally don't like writing author's notes (I like reading them though) because in real books the authors don't get to say what they mean. They only can hope that the readers are smart enough to figure it out. Luckily, I'm not a real author and don't have to follow that rule so yay for being an amateur! I am a huge supporter of spell check, but it can't get everything so if I need to work on my grammar and/or spelling just tell me! I have been practicing making my writing longer and if anyone has pointers they would be appreciated. There is a reason Fanfiction put in a review button. I also am okay with not getting many reviews. Only review if you have something to say (I don't care if that something is what you had for dinner, I still will be happy to read it) if not, than that's fine. Thanks for clicking on my story! One last thing, it will be pretty obvious who the POV's are and if it isn't from either Percy or Annabeth, I'll specify. The first part of this chapter is from Percy's point of view then it will switch to Annabeth's and then back and forth.**

I lay down in my bunk at Camp Half-Blood, staring at the coral walls of the cabin. Today had been awesome. I had just spent a fabulous day with Annabeth doing random camp stuff like sword fighting, climbing the lava rock wall, and underwater kissing. It was one of the best days of my life (not that that's saying much) but I was ready to catch some Z's. After the giant war, I hadn't been getting many nightmares so I had high hopes for tonight's sleep. I lay my head back on the blue pillow and let the sound of the waves and the reflection of the saltwater fountain lull me to sleep

. .

Today had been, well, amazing. Percy had taken me to all of his favorite spots at camp and we had a romantic day. Seaweed Brain even took me on a picnic underwater. He created a small dome of oxygen so that we could eat and talk without drowning or getting the food wet. We had a blast not fighting any monsters or almost dying but I was ready for bed. As I put on my pajamas, I thought back to the beginning of our relationship. When we were twelve and hated each other's guts. I wondered why I had thought that because he was the son of Poseidon and I was the daughter of Athena that meant we couldn't be friends, or more. I slipped into my bed and let the smell of freshly read books and the glow of someone's laptop pull me into dream land.

I woke up to the beeping of alarm clock and pulled my sheets over my head to try blocking out the noise. I was evenloped in a mass of red darkness and was just starting to fall back asleep when I thought, _'Wait a second… I would never, ever put an alarm clock in the Poseidon cabin, and I am 100% positive that the sheets are blue like my pillow, not red.'_ I opened my eyes fully and my first thought was: Oh crap. Not because I had no clue where I was. Pretty much the opposite. I recognized my surroundings alright, and they didn't make me happy. I was in my old dorm room at Yancy Academy. I groaned, was this some practical joke? I sat up and looked around. If this was some sort of time trip, then Grover would be here. Sure enough I looked over and saw Grover passed out on his bed. Oh no this couldn't be happening.

I stuck my head out the door and my heart sank. I was in Yancy alright. Grover had apparently woken up to my alarm clock because I heard him moving behind me.

"Perrcy?" I heard him moan. I decided right then and there that no matter what was really going on, I wouldn't let on to the fact that this was scarily similar to my sixth grade school. I really wouldn't be surprised if the fates had brought me back in time. It had been at least three months since the giant war and that was way too much time to be happy. Right? I went with the safe response to Grover's call.

"Yea G-man?" I said.

"What time is it?" he asked, not looking up. I glanced at the clock.

"It's eight."

He flew out of his bed with a wild look in his eye and ran around the room ignoring the fact that since he was 'crippled' he shouldn't be able to move with so much agility. He was such a bad liar.

"We have Brunners at 8:15! You know that. Hurry! Hurry!"

I didn't bother to tell him that I had no clue when my Latin class was because I hadn't been to it in about five years, so I just threw on a shirt and jeans and headed out the door. This would be interesting.

. .

I woke up in the Athena cabin as usual and blearily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Around me some of my siblings were getting ready and I followed them. Someone must've moved the mirror that one of my sisters had gotten a few years ago so I blindly brushed my hair into a ponytail while dreaming up activities for Percy and me. We could find underwater caves, fight monsters in the woods. Life was great.

I walked outside and frowned. A huge storm was brewing which most likely meant that Zeus was mad. Life had been going pretty well for me lately so I wasn't about to let a simple tantrum of the lord of the sky ruin my streak. Then again it could just be a storm, those did happen in which case it would skirt around the camp. I went to the bathroom and as I was walking out, I looked in the mirror and almost passed out. I looked almost completely different. My arms were soft and didn't have the muscle of someone who had been on many quests and my eyes looked bright and innocent instead of my tired older ones that I had become accustomed to. I was twelve.

I ran back outside and looked around to see if anyone else was different and I let out a small shriek. The people weren't the first thing I noticed. The first thing I noticed was the cabins. There were eleven and only eleven. I counted them, recounted them, and searched for the others. Where were the minor gods' cabins? What about Hades? The Hecate? The Tyche? The Iris?

I looked at the campers and yet again felt my blood run cold. I saw Travis and Connor walking around, but the too looked younger. I saw Clarisse threatening a new camper and she looked younger. Katie? Younger. Malcom? Adolescent. Will? Looked as if he had just arrived. I ran towards the Big House to see if Chiron knew what was going on when I slammed into someone.

"Hey Annabeth." I heard the voice and looked up and saw his face. It was him. No no no no no. This was not happening. I did my best to keep calm.

"Hi Luke." I said as smoothly as I could muster. I must have done an okay job because other than a strange look, the traitor continued his thought.

"Do you know when Grover gets back from Yancy?" he asked nonchalantly as if it was completely normal that he was alive now and walking around in the place he had worked so hard to destroy.

That's when it hit me. Sure I had been suspecting it but this was the final piece For whatever reason, I had been sent back in time around five or six years to do who knows what. That meant that Percy was at Yancy with Grover. He probably didn't know who I was, and even if he had been sent back too, it meant that at I was, at least for now, on my own.

I gave Luke a quick shrug, trying even harder to hide my fear, and went towards a sure way to confirm my suspicions, a place that I swore I would never go on purpose: the Aphrodite cabin.

It turned out, I didn't need to because my answer was strolling out the door. Selina Beauregard was laughing with one of her sisters probably talking about makeup or something. I didn't go up to her but watched from a distance taking in her face. Maybe this wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me.


	2. Chapter 2

I ran after Grover and hoped that he knew where Mr. Brunner's/Chiron's class was. You might be thinking, _'how do you forget where your favorite teacher's classroom was in just five years? That's really dumb.'_ Alright, how about this. Think back five or six years ago to your school and try to, in your head, navigate that. You may or may not have been able to find it, but then factor in five years' worth of battles, different schools to memorize, and close to one year of memory loss, all there to confuse you. Don't blame me for not remembering where some stupid Latin class was.

It seemed like Grover did know where it was, because after several twists and turns down hallways that I vaguely remembered, he stopped outside of a door that had a picture of a laurel wreath taped onto it and a sign that read MR. BRUNER LATIN. I braced myself for the awkwardness of coming into Chiron's classroom knowing his secret before he knew that I knew it and slowly opened the door.

I let out a sigh when I saw his familiar face. His beard looked a bit less gray which sounded odd since he's immortal. I assumed that it was because he had been under a ton of stress lately. He frowned when he saw us and said,

"Mr. Jackson, Mr. Underwood, why are you late to my class?"

Grover stumbled out some excuse about clocks and pants and I realized that I would have to take charge which probably would look normal to everyone.

"I'm really sorry sir," I said smoothly. "It won't happen again."

He raised an eyebrow and replied. "Alright Mr. Jackson. You and your friend can sit down now."

Grover gave me a shocked look and I smiled. It was nice to be the confident one.

We took our seats and I looked at the board. A thought came to mind. _Wait a second… I know Latin and Greek… this class is going to be so easy! I can actually pass! _

I was so caught up in my daydreams of being awesome at life that I didn't realize that 'Mr. Brunner' had been talking.

"Mr. Jackson," came his voice, slashing through my consciousness.

"Hmmmm… Whaaa? I mean… Sir?" I stammered.

"I believe that I was asking how to conjugate Latin verbs." He said impatiently. He obviously didn't think I knew the answer. Well, the twelve year-old me had no living clue what that answer was, but the seventeen year-old one did.

**I'm just using my limited Latin knowledge that I haven't had to use in forever. So I didn't use translate or anything. Sorry if it is wrong. (My mom taught me Latin from Kindergarten to third grade and I've pretty much forgotten most of it) **

"Well sir," I answered, trying to keep the smugness out of my voice. "There are different endings for each tense. Say you wanted to say 'I love dinner'. You take the first person singular ending and tack it on to the Latin word for to love while dropping a suffix. In this case it would be _amare_ or _to love _and since the endings are _O_-I, _S_-you, _T_-he, she, and it, _MUS_-we, _TIS_-you all, _NT_-they. So I love dinner would become _Amo Canae._" In my head I added an _'At least that's what Annabeth told me.'_ Just for good measure.

The class was silent with shock at my clearly correct answer, until Mr. Brunner/Chiron spoke.

"…Very good Mr. Jackson you are exactly right. Now can anyone tell me…?"

He pretty much went on like that until five minutes until class ended when he passed out a bright green sheet. I didn't really care what it said, and I didn't remember from my personal experience, so I figured that I could wait for Chiron to tell us, and sure enough, once everyone had a flyer he continued on.

"I'm sure that you all have heard about our trip to the museum tomorrow and I just wanted to brush up on a few last minute things."

Oh no. The museum, Nancy, the fountain, Mrs. Dodds, Riptide. I remembered that day like it was yesterday and though I had often thought about it, I still didn't know what I was going to do. I mean, the same thing was going to happen. Nancy would make fun of Grover, I would probably explode the fountain, and Mrs. Dodds/Alecto would try and kill me. How would it effect everything for me to mess up one thing?

I thought over it and when the bell rang for the next class I got up and ran to my room. It was harder with my younger body, but my room wasn't very far. I had to find a map or a schedule for the day. I started to rummage through my things when I heard the telltale sound of _"You have a call pending. Except call?" _It was an Iris Message.

"Yes. I accept the call."

The face was one I didn't exactly expect. It was Chiron, but it was the future Chiron, the one whom I knew so well. With him, was the entire war council containing every single cabin councilor, Thalia, and Grover. They were all staring worriedly at me and it was a bit creepy. Something was up and I probably wouldn't like it.

"Percy," Chiron looked relived. "Where are you? I-Is that Yancy academy? In your old dorm room? Percy what is going on? Where is Annabeth?"

"Yea I'm fine and there's something going on and I didn't do anything this time but… wait… what about Annabeth? Chiron, _where_ is she!"

"You mean she isn't with you?" Thalia spoke up.

"Uhhhhhhh"

"Percy Jackson! You don't know where she is? You're hopeless! I can't believe you… ARG!"

"I swear. I didn't I…" but Thalia had already stormed out to most likely shoot pictures of my head and throw them into the rock wall. I glared in her direction before looking to the others.

"Hurry up, I'm already late for math class and Mrs. Dodds will kill me. Possibly with poison."

"Mrs. Dodds? As in the… Percy you _are_ at Yancy. What are you doing? Shouldn't Alecto be in the underworld?"

Piper cut in "_Alecto_, as in the Fury?" she gasped.

"Listen Chiron, I woke up here and I didn't _just_ change locations. I changed times."

The campers gasped again (they seemed to do that a lot), but Chiron looked skeptical.

"That's impossible Percy. We couldn't be able to contact you unless…"

I finished for him. "Unless a god was allowing me. See, I think that I was sent here by the gods and that they're the ones allowing this call. If I'm correct, then they also sent Annabeth back with me."

Suddenly I heard movement behind me and I franticly whispered.

"Someone's coming. I have to go bye," and I waved a hand through the mist of the IM. Just then, Grover walked in and gave me a funny look.

"Percy! Where have you been? Mrs. Dodds was furious and is definitely going to give you detention."

I inwardly laughed. Detention was the least of my worries right now. I quickly stopped when I realized that Grover could feel emotions seeing that I knew it would weird him out that I thought detention was funny.

sure enough, he looked at me suspiciously and warily asked.

"Were you talking to anyone?"

"Uhhh… me? Oh… Yea. My mom. She... uh said hey… and uhh... yea."

"Oh… alright. So… are you coming to Dodds?"

I definitely wasn't ready to face her just yet.

"Nah I'm gonna stay here until the next class. You can stay too."

"Oh… um… no thanks… She thinks I'm going to the bathroom so-"

"It's okay G-man. Go ahead." I said, and I sat back on my bed, trying to find a solution to my major problem.

I paced around my cabin, going over the facts of this 'quest' or whatever it was. I formed a list in my head:

1. I am in the past.

2. I don't know if anyone else from the future is with me.

3. People who are evil and/or dead in the future are walking around perfectly fine now.

4. Chiron and Grover are away at some school with Percy who may or may not be from the future/present day.

5. I am completely and utterly without a plan.

I knew that two of my assessments (two and four) could only be solved by simply waiting for Percy, but it went against everything I had been through and trained for to just sit back and let time go on without any strategy. Athena _always _has a plan. That's our motto and I've always planned to stick with it until the end. Now, pacing in my cabin, surrounded by inventions, books, and designs all built by people who live by the same code, I wasn't sure if it was even possible.

I consoled myself my repeating. Waiting _is_ a plan. Waiting_ is_ a plan. Over and over in my head. I sat down and tried clearing my head by thinking about Percy, and all of our adventures. When first found him outside of camp, when we went on our first quest. Then it hit me. If I was back in time, that meant Percy and Grover would be returning at the end of the school year which was about… oh… two months away. At least that was enough of time to formulate a new scheme… hopefully.


	3. Chapter 3

**New year, new chapter. Hopefully that isn't a trend. I would've had this out like two days ago except for the fact that the networks was like ERROR ERROR and blah blah bla- here's the chapter...**

I groaned and rolled over when the annoying sound of the alarm started blaring through my room. After years of having to wake up quickly and react on quests, or during class, I had finally mastered the art of not having to adjust to my surroundings. I knew that I was in Yancy, I knew that I was twelve, and I knew that I had big problems.

I also knew that today was the day of the field trip to the was pretty clear to me that I _could_ avoid fighting Mrs. Dodds by not 'pushing' Nancy into, but with Riptide's help I remembered that it wasn't very hard to beat her last time, and I would feel better with her out of the way.

I walked over to the shabby dresser that was sitting next to my bed and pulled out some clothes from the top drawer. I knew how easily I had defeated Mrs. Dodds, but I still wanted to prepare myself for the fight, so I put on clothes that were light-weight and easy to move around in. Now that I thought of it, this could be my chance to change everything that I would've done differently.

I looked into the mirror and ran my fingers through my soft twelve year-old hair, and stared into my young sea-green eyes. _Gosh I look so different, yet so similar,_ I thought. I turned my head away from the mirror for a second to look out the window and frowned at the storm clouds. _The bolt_ I whispered to myself. I would have to go on that quest again, with Annabeth and Grover. It would be hard not to tip Grover off about my… situation, but I was pretty sure that Annabeth had been sent back with me. I mean, according to Chiron she was missing too and she had as much to do with the success of this mission as I did.

I looked back to the mirror and immediately noticed a small white sticky note attached to it. The words were written in bronze ink, similar to my pen/sword's ink. It was in English so I had to squint and focus really hard to read it. After a little bit I could finally see that it said:** Percy, this is IMPORTANT so don't put this down, throw it away, or let anyone see it. We can't interfere much in this quest, but seeing as we issued it directly and everything, we might possibly, occasionally leave one of these for you. We suppose that you should know some things. First of all, you are indeed in the past. Our past selves do not and cannot know who you really are until the end of this quest.(If you do have to tell someone we will try and block what they know) It takes a lot of power to send you back (your welcome), and when you finish up, we will send you back, but not most likely not right at the time when you left. This will allow IM's to be sent to the future but be careful! They can't be made too often or else you will tear apart the fabric of time. We sent you to save those whose lives were lost while defending Olympus. Think of it as your gift for helping us. Now go and fix stuff.**

And it was signed: **The Olympians**

I honestly was shocked. I didn't know what to think other than the fact that this was a gift that would please everyone at camp. I had been slightly surprised that they never gave us anything (not that I wanted their dumb gifts) after the giant war, and I soon forgot about it, but this pretty much made up for it. Now I could save my friends. The only thing that confused me was that nobody had died in my first or second quest. _Oh well. I can figure that out later._

I had just crumpled up the paper and shoved it in my pocket, when Grover barged in the room.

"Percy…" he gasped. "The field trip! We're late and Mrs. Dodds wants to leave now!"

I grabbed my shoes and sprinted after him.

Luckily, we made it on the bus in time. Unluckily, we had to sit in front of Nancy Bobofit who was armed with her stupid peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. Just like last time she was throwing it at Grover and just like last time I was mad enough to kill her. The only things that were different were that she didn't bother me as much anymore (because Nancy Bobofit wasn't the meanest, worst thing I had met), and I actually had the physical ability to kill her. I remember when I was twelve (the first time,) wishing that I had decked her right then and there to get out of the mess that I was driving towards, but it felt different this time, I was ready.

We walked behind Mr. Brunner/Chiron (I'm going to call him Chiron from now on) while he rolled around in his wheelchair, showing us the marble statues and old pottery that the place had on display. It was a lot more interesting, knowing that this stuff was part of my heritage.

We stopped at an old stele and he started telling us about facts about it. I already knew what it was, due to the fact that my girlfriend had dragged me into this exact museum many times to 'look for inspiration' after the titan war. We actually made a stele together once for a graveyard that she was building in her new Olympus. I didn't feel the need to pay attention after hearing the same lecture a million times before. Plus, I had even heard the true story behind the girl.

Chiron was still talking about the Greek funeral art when I heard the annoying giggle of Nancy Bobofit and I couldn't control myself anymore. I spun around and hissed. "_Shut up_!"

Chiron must've heard me with his crazy horse hearing and he calmly asked.

"Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?"

Don't get me wrong, I do care about and respect what Chiron thinks, like a lot, but I remember being embarrassed last time and I wasn't about to do it again. So I told him that I was listening to his talk and Nancy was talking too loud.

He narrowed his eyes and turned to Nancy.

"Ms. Bobofit? Would you care to tell us what this picture represents?"

Much to my eternal joy, she was stumped. I was still gloating when Chiron turned to me.

"And you, Mr. Jackson? Can you tell us what this means?"

The picture made me go pale. No matter how old and crumbly that picture was, it still brought back memories of fighting and pain.

"It's a picture from ancient times, before the gods were grown. That's the titan Kronos eating his kids." I said.

Chiron obviously saw my discomfort and was about to let it be, when Nancy snickered, "Like we're going to use that information in real life. Like it's going to say on a job application. 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.' "

Chiron picked up on her question and shot it back to me. "And why Mr. Jackson, to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

I sighed, this was getting a little too familiar for my taste. Grover was muttering busted, Nancy was telling him to shut up, and I didn't know how to answer the question.

"I don't know sir," was the answer I decided on. I remembered every detail of this day due to its important events, and seeing that I couldn't actually truthfully answer the question, I just went with the safest answer/the one I used last time.

Chiron went on to talk about the details, which I did my best to tune out, and eventually dismissed us for lunch. He made me hang back to lecture me about life. I knew it was coming, and I did my best to act disappointed. In reality, I was glad to see him. Chiron was my mentor and I trusted him with my life.

"You need to learn the answer to my question Percy," he said gravely.

I gave him a look that said. _'Honestly, how could I answer that question without sounding either crazy, or dumb?'_

"You'll have to find out for yourself," he said seriously. "My class is extremely important for your real life in ways that you can't imagine."

I decided to give him something to think about. "Oh, I think I can imagine Mr. Brunner." And I left him to gaze at the stele of the young half-blood girl who never came back.

I walked outside, and sat by Grover, who was picking at a pear.

"Detention?" he asked.

"No." I said shortly.

I handed him my apple before he could ask for it and waited for Nancy to come. I took a deep breath and told myself, _calm down Percy, you're just about to be attacked by one of the strongest monsters in the world. _

I was just about to relax when Nancy strolled up to us and dumped her lunch onto Grover's lap. Before she could even say 'Oops' I willed the water from the fountain to grab her and I smiled as it pulled her in.

To be honest, it felt great to use my powers, but my heart sunk when Mrs. Dodds materialized next to me. I took a deep breath and used my WWAD (What Would Annabeth Do) , I wasn't as afraid as I had been. I had a plan.

She paraded me past the other kids, ignoring Grover's pleas of 'I pushed her!' Looking back, I now understood the full extent of Grover's bravery. If Chiron hadn't shown up the first time, it would have been up to him to save my life.

We headed towards the building, and Chiron glanced up at me. For a fraction of a second his eyes grew wide with understanding, but he quickly wiped them of emotion and turned back to his book. _You're not alone_ _you're not alone_ _you're not alone._ I told myself. As we passed Chiron, my foot caught on a rock and I tripped and fell. I bumped into him and then hit the concrete. Pain shot up my knee and I saw a bit of red on the sidewalk. _Great job Percy,_ I groaned, _how are you going to win with a scraped knee? _

"Nice job Jackson," I heard Nancy laugh.

I brushed it off and followed the fury in disguise. She had teleported herself to the doors and was glaring at me so I hurried over to her.

We made our way into the gallery where there weren't any people. She turned around with an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Now honey," she hissed. "You've been givi-"

But she was cut off by the 'Shink!' of my sword that I had pickpocketed from Chiron as I 'tripped'. It cut clean through her and she was evaporated into dust.

"I'm sorry Alecto, what was that?" I muttered to myself.

I heard the wheels of Chiron's chair and the clop of Grover's feet and I quickly pocketed the pen and put on a scared face.

"Percy!" Grover cried out. "Are you in there?"

I thought back to when Grover and Chiron had distorted the mist to try and prevent me from discovering my secret and smiled. This could be my own version of payback, even though they did it for my own good. I hid behind the statue that Nancy had laughed at earlier.

"Chiron, He isn't here! W-what if she got him?" that was clearly Grover.

"Well then my young satyr, we will go home and mourn."

This was it. I stepped out from behind the statue and in an overly excited voice I asked, "Whose Chiron? And what's a satyr?" I did my best not to laugh at their faces. They obviously thought that they were royally screwed.

Grover looked desperately to Chiron who said carefully, "Oh, Percy my boy, where have you been?"

"Oh right here!" I exclaimed brightly. "Mrs. Dodds turned into this thing and flew at me, but I stabbed her with my sword and she exploded into dust."

They looked confused at first, but Chiron took it as a way to turn the conversation towards his direction.

"Percy, I am afraid that there is no Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Acandemy. Are you feeling alright?"

_Dang_… I shouldn't have given them that window.

"Uhhhh…" I said, trying to think of something to say.

"C-come on Percy, l-let's go h-home." Grover stammered. "You've had a long day."

I gave up and followed him towards the rest of the class.

S**o that's where I'm going with this! Huh, that was news to me to... Seeing that at the start I'm going to be using several direct quotes from the books, I'll do something new! A DISCLAIMER: I know that a lot of people think of cute and creative disclaimers. Here is my shot: I no owno**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is probably the worst delay ever. I can't even use the 'I'm busy' thing, because the universe literally seemed to be pushing me to upload a chapter. I even got a snow day! And I live in Florida! **

**Even though it most likely looks otherwise, I do put a lot of effort into these chapters. I hate it more than anyone when a writer belittles his or her work by saying that he or she: hates the story that THEY wrote, or that he or she just 'doesn't feel it anymore' I mean sure, I'm no Rick Riordan, but I should own up to the fact that it's my work and I should like it no matter what. Whatever… I guess it's better than proclaiming to the world that," I am the best auther like 4evs" but I really love optimistic people. So here ya go! Oh, and if you see grammatical errors please tell me and I will fix them.**

For an 'IMPORTANT' quest, there sure was a lot of mindless waiting involved. I had to go to classes that I'd already been to, pretend like I was a normal twelve-year-old delinquent, and occasionally spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on people to make Grover think that hadn't caught onto his stupid '_crazy Percy thing._' Gods of Olympus! I never thought that anything could make him seem like a worse liar, but now I knew that he was trying to fool me, and his weak attempts only 'worked' because I pretended like they did.

Sure, it was tedious and boring and lonely and seemed pointless, but I felt as if this was a break of sorts. The world's most realistic trip down memory lane, if you will.

The best part of the down time, was the time I got to spend with Grover. Even after the war was over, he was always busy with Lord of the Wild duties and we never got to talk. Now, I lived with the guy and we got to talk about all of the dumb kid things that I missed.

The freak weather must've spooked him more than I realized, because he wasn't able to read my emotions very well. It was actually quite helpful, though I did feel badly for him. Grover was always practically ripping his hair out each time we heard a BOOM! Of thunder. I had to hold myself back from many things throughout those months and one of the more minor things was yelling, "SHUT IT ZEUS!" The major things were referencing Annabeth and anything else that had happened to me in the past few months. Pretty much, I had to forget them for now. (Which was fine by me)

As the days till the end of my second sixth grade year dipped into the single digits, I grew restless in anticipation. Each night, when I was sure that Grover was safely snoring in his bed, I would slip out and roam the school. My stealth training came in handy for avoiding hall monitors (I'm not sure that _that _was the purpose Nico had in mind when we practiced it)

In all honesty, I should've seen it coming, I mean it was almost an exact repeat of last time. One night, as I was doing my midnight stroll of the shadowy halls of my alma mater, muffled voices were coming out of the door to Chiron's classroom.

I slunk over to the entrance and heard two very familiar people talking. One was Grover.

"I'm worried about Percy, sir"

How did he get out of bed? I'd waited extra-long to ensure that my journey would be undisturbed! Of course I faintly remembered that (other than Mrs. Dodds) my first solid affirmation of the existence of Half-Bloods, was through an overheard conversation at Yancy, I just heard my name and was automatically drawn in.

"…this sumer," this was also Grover.

Maybe he was talking about camp half-blood?

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Chiron said.

So he had wanted to give me more time… how nice.

"The Summer Solstice deadline—" Grover started.

"Will have to be resolved without him." Wow, Chiron was bent on this.

"Sir, I… can't fail in my duties again." Now Grover sounded like he was about to cry. I wanted to run in and tell him that nothing had been his fault, that Thalia had made own choice on the hill all those years ago. Chiron beat me to it.

"You haven't failed anything Grover," he said kindly. Man, that's why I loved him so much. It took a lot to frustrate him. He made a great teacher, both for mortal children and demigod children.

"-Keep Percy alive until next fall." Ha, jokes on you Chiron. I thought weakly it'll be a lot harder than just keeping me alive for Thanksgiving.

Now I know I mentioned Nico's stealth training. Well I neglected to say that I had almost utterly failed it. Chiron's comment had brought a small laugh from my throat.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Grover and Chiron's animal ears picked up on the chuckle and immediately snapped to attention. Luckily, I had more than enough practice with running from… well... 90% of any Greek monster, witch, god, or titan so hiding in the shadows was easy. I heard the clop-clop-clop of Chiron's hooves and saw the shadow of his horse-backside. It was surprising that he would just walk out of his office like that, but I didn't have time to question his level of secrecy. As I ran, I heard something about nerves and winter solstice, but didn't stop to think about it. I slipped back into my bed and stayed silent as Grover trotted in and lay down. Tomorrow would be a long day and I needed the rest.

..

The Latin exam wasn't too bad. I probably got at least an –A, which better than I could ever say before. I was just about to walk out the door and prepare for Camp Half-Blood, when Chiron called me back into the room. I felt a flash of worry that he had found out about my previous night's eavesdropping, but it went away quickly when he spoke.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... for the best."

I had forgotten that all of my other grades were complete failures. I could've passed with mostly A's and B's had I put in effort, but I didn't really care. My 'logic' was that I should try and keep things as similar to the present as possible. (In reality I just wanted to not have to do any work.) So needless to say I was not invited back to Yancy. (Boo Hoo, what. .)

Even though I knew the truth behind his 'kind' words, it still hurt to hear him tell me that I wasn't able to succeed. I silently wished he could see the current 17 year-old me.

He continued the same stupid conversation that had embarrassed me so much when I was 12. When I'd had enough, I walked out and went to pack my stuff.

I silently listened to the other kid's summer plans and smugly thought of my most recent summer (In the future.) I had traveled to Rome, Greece, and pretty much _everywhere_ else in the world, fought like three Titians, and survived tartaurus. Who cares about Zack's hiking trip to Switzerland or Cynthia's Caribbean cruise.

They asked me what I was doing for summer and I vaguely told them that I was looking into a 'summer camp.'

There wasn't much to plan for, so I lay on my bed, daydreaming about being reuniting with Annabeth. I was dreading being separated with Grover, due to the fact that he was the only connection I had to camp, and the fact that when he was around, I never truly felt alone.

I was relived to find that he was riding the same bus home as I was. Grover spent the entire trip looking over his shoulder, probably looking for Mr. D to pop out of nowhere and demand that he give up his searchers license. It was really getting on my nerves, so I pulled out Riptide and started fiddling with it. Turning it over in my hand and running a finger along its smooth engraving.

I was brought out of the inspection by Grover's shaky voice.

"W-Where did you g-get that?" He whispered, pointing at my sword. _Dang! _I had been hoping that he wouldn't recognize it.

"Uhhhhh…"

"Percy, this is important!" he said urgently.

"I uh… Ch-Mr. Brunner… uh gave it to me…" I stammered. "It was after Mrs. Dodds… disappeared."

He nodded and then paled, realizing his mistake. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds. I'm starting to worry about you. I mean, hallucinating about a demon math teacher?"

I started to talk, but he stopped me.

"Here," he said, pressing a piece of paper into my hand, "take this in case you need anything."

If I wasn't only days away from going back to Camp, I probably would've started sobbing right then and there. I'd like to think it was my twelve year-old body, but those words printed on the paper made me homesick.

The card read: Grover Underwood Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island New York. My home.

I pocketed the card and turned to face the window after giving Grover a reassuring smile. No doubt his emotion-sensing skills were going crazy, trying to figure out why this card meant so much to me. I did my best not to dwell on it, and instead looked at the New York 'Countryside.'

When the bus came to a stop and it was filled with hot smelly air, my blood ran cold. The first thing I could think of was '_not this.'_ Sure enough, the Greyhound had come to a stop in front of a fruit stand, where three old ladies were knitting an XXXL pair of socks that some part of my crazy head wondered if they would fit on Tyson.

I hated the elderly women the instant I saw them. They were the ones who had screwed up my life so badly that it must have been their favorite past-time. _The Fates. _

Grover made no move to get off the boiling bus and I followed suit. As much as I wanted to run them through with Riptide, I got the feeling that doing so would not only kill me before I got within a few feet of them, but it also would prove the theory of '_a fate worse than death'_ correct.

A few minutes later, when the bus was once again moving and away from the fruit stand, I still could hear the tell-tail _snip _of the ladies' scissors, cutting through the life of a human being as if it were like snipping a piece of yarn. Grover was even more shaken up than I was. Mumbling about how they "never get past sixth grade" giving me those pitying glances that I hated so much. It was then that I wondered for maybe the millionth time in the past few months if this quest was worth it.

**Something that you might find is that that when I type for a long time, I accidentally capitalize the wrong stuff. I don't know why I do it, but it also happens when I hand-write. **


	5. Chapter 5

**I tried to put this one out faster than last time and hopefully will be faster more often. Today I was really busy, celebrating my birthday and stuff (don't mind me, just fishing for birthday wishes) I had a lot of free time since my mom is trying to be nice to me today (though she signed me up for the ACT.) I included a lot of stuff from the book, but changed some stuff. If you see grammatical errors please tell me.**

I distinctly remember doing it last time, but it was very necessary to keep the quest on track. (Plus his muttering was so annoying, it made me want to jump back into Tartarus.) I ditched Grover at the bus stop.

It wasn't like it was hard or anything. After the millionth time hearing "Why is it always sixth grade?" I realized that if I didn't escape soon, I would _'accidentally'_ end up screaming some Greek curse at him (I was getting pretty good at those) which would only freak him out even more. So I tuned him out, and when he stopped for _another _bathroom break, I split. Weaving through throngs of tourists before finally catching a cab to my old apartment.

I won't lie, I was really excited to see my mom. Ever since the latest war, I'd had to balance my time between camp, a girlfriend, and school, all while maintaining a decent relationship with my mother and Paul. I probably ended up seeing them a few times a week and I'm not ashamed to say that I missed her (or her cooking.)

I spent the taxi drive thinking of what to say when I saw her. I didn't quite know the woman I was about to see. She was from a different time and I had to play the part of loving troubled son. Not that it would be very hard.

I had my heart set on a nice simple "Hi mom" when the cabbie stopped the car. I gazed at the old run-down building and smiled. So many memories had been made here.

My smile faded after I walked up the stairs and entered our apartment. It had the signature reek of gym shorts and moldy garlic pizza. I most certainly hadn't forgotten about _Smelly Gabe _(not that I hadn't tried.) I had, the smell of beer and the blaring sound of ESPN would have jogged my memory. I took a deep breath (through my mouth) and tried to slink past him with my super awesome ninja skills.

I guess it takes more than half of a thirty minute: How to Be a Ninja lesson from the Stolls is needed to sneak past my ex-stepfather and his bloodhound-like cash sniffing nose of his, because I was about half-way to my room when I heard the gruff voice saying, "Got any cash?"

He was pretty much as ugly as ever. Fat, bald, and cheaply dressed. I considered giving him my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later glare, but I instead just shook my head in hopes that he would leave me alone.

He narrowed his beady little eyes. _Oh well, _I thought, _It was worth a shot._

Before he could go on his tirade of figuring out exactly how much money I should have, I fished the ten out of my pockets and threw it on the table. Then I gave him the glare and was filled with glee to see the momentary look of terror that crossed his face. I loved that look.

Gabe's clothes were strewn across the room, but I did my best to ignore it by repeating over and over _not too long not too long_. But it was too long. I wanted to scream out the windows "Hey everyone! I can take you!" or run out the door and just 'show up' at camp, but I had a little longer. Too much longer.

I thought about what I would be doing if I were at camp in the future. It was around four in the afternoon on a Friday, so I would be finishing up with my activities for the day and starting to relax. I would have a few hours before dinner, and I most likely would head to the Athena cabin to see Annabeth. We would talk, or study, or spar. She would laugh at how dumb I was, and I would let her since that conversation usually either ended in rolling on the ground in fits of laughter, or kissing. I'll let you guess which one was my favorite.

A soft call of "Percy?" woke me from my daydream. Mom was home.

I took in the sight of her sparkly eyes, warm smile, and gray streaks. She had a considerably less amount than the last time I'd seen her. It made me guilty wondering if some of those were from staying up late wondering if I would come home.

She hugged me and fussed about how much I had grown and all of that typical mom stuff. I found the growing thing ironic since to me, I was shorter than I was last Christmas. Well, the Christmas in the future.

I enjoyed talking to her about things that didn't involve me almost dying or blowing something up until I heard the annoying voice of Gabe asking where his dip was. I don't quite blame him. My mom's dip is heavenly.

I was still mad, but I kept my mouth shut and ignored him. My mom and I talked some more. She then brought up Montauk like I knew she would and I didn't have to fake excitement. Montauk meant that camp was coming up soon. I was glowing until Gabe stuck his fat head into my door.

"Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

Instead of attempting to run him through with Riptide (he probably wasn't even mortal so I had high hopes for it working on him,) I pacified myself with the masterpiece that was _The Poker Player _His time would come, and I did understand the usefulness of keeping his lazy butt around. So my mouth stayed shut.

She gave him a sweet "I was on my way honey," and made the mistake of talking about the trip.

"You mean you were serious about that?" His tiny little eyes got even smaller.

I Let out an exasperated sigh and flopped on the bed. Maybe Riptide was worth a shot?

The rest of the conversation I tuned out. I knew how it would go. Even if it had been years, I definitely remember the event that kick started the best/worst event of my life. Plus this wasn't an entirely original thing for Gabe and my mom.

After muttering a 'heartfelt' apology and resisting to throw in some ancient Greek curses, he finally left us to pack.

Getting in the car created an awkward atmosphere to the trip. See, sometime in between my sixteenth birthday until when I was sent back, I found the time to get my license. The fact that I didn't even have a learners permit didn't prove to be a problem when I got Thalia to tag along and show the not-at-all-mystified-piece-of-blank-paper. Chiron had tried teaching me the ways of the mist, but I wasn't nearly as good as Thalia (she _was_ immortal.) Mostly just didn't want to put in the effort it took. Anyway, I was so excited about the trip, that I forgot my act. I walked towards the driver's side which ended in a collision with my mom. She gave me a funny look and said, "Were you planning on driving?"

"Uhhhh no?"

She laughed and lightly pushed me towards the other side of the car.

Being a half-blood, I'd slept in some strange places. The Montauk cabin used to seem slightly run down in a loved sort of way, but now it looked like a palace. I drunk in the pastel colors and smiled at each little cobweb. They all were part of something that I had had long since left behind.

We talked more, which never got old. It was getting late so she made me go to sleep. I mentally prepared for the next day before drifting into a dreamless sleep.

BOOM! The windows rattled and I leaped out of the tiny bed I had been resting in. I paced up and down the room until another boom made my mom shoot up.

"Percy?!" she cried. I nodded to her and motioned to stay silent. Any second now… KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK the knocks sounded over the hurricane and I ran to get the door. Grover stood in the doorway and my mother spluttered horrified questions to both of us. Now was the time to take charge. I grabbed a bag that I had covertly packed the night before and pated my pocket to make sure that Riptide was safely situated inside.

"Let's go." I said, ignoring their disbelieving faces. I could make something up later, but I had to take control now.

**If you think that I should make this closer to the book please tell me.**

** THANKS**


	6. Chapter 6

**Since I'm pretty much only able to write early in the morning and late at night, there might/probably will be flaws. I do proof read, but hey, nobody is perfect. This one is a bit shorter (but it is over 1K.) A lot of you guys said that I shouldn't stay too close to the book and I will follow that wish. That will be more in play starting next chapter when Percy and Annabeth are together. Enjoy!**

Grover and my mom didn't question anything at first. It must've been the life-or-death situation that shut them up, but I was thankful that I didn't have to explain the moment of confidence. I would make something up later and mumble about my demigodness kicking in or anything similar to that.

After a long period of silence, Grover decided to acknowledge the elephant in the room… or car…"So you aren't surprised?" he asked carefully. "About… all this I mean?" He gestured to his legs, but I understood the point. He was referring to the fact that I was speeding down Zeus knows what street in the middle of a hurricane with my race car driver mother and half-goat best friend with an unknown threat chasing after me.

I did the best quick thinking I could and blurted out, "Uh… yea… I uh… wow… I'm really shocked and stuff... Maybe I'm just so shocked that… uh… I… don't look shocked… because my system is… overloaded… with the shock…yea."

I'll admit it, I've made better spur of the moment excuses, but Grover was clearly too scared to process my lame answer. He went back to muttering unintelligible nonsense to his hooves.

We drove on like that for some time until I got so fed up with the silence that I had to speak up.

"So you have hooves…" I questioned casually.

Grover opened his mouth to answer, but he never got to utter a word because my stepfather's Camaro decided to do a gymnastics routine across the road. I was flung from the passenger's seat where I had been previously sitting and in the moments that I was in the air, everything slowed down.

I saw Grover tumble out of the side and hit his head against a log, my mother, like me, soared through the air like a circus performer. Luckily, she landed on the grassy side of the road unlike Grover. Gabe's car tumbled across the road just like in the action movies before exploding into a fiery inferno.

It was almost comical. Just like those EPIC FAIL YouTube videos.

I shook off the pain and limped over to Grover where he was slumped over. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to arouse him, I slung him over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The rain was coming down harder and harder, but in the flashes of lightning, I could still see the fuzzy silhouette that made my blood run cold. The Minotaur. No matter how many times I fought that guy, I still got the shivers when I saw him.

I turned to face him, my hand reaching towards my pocket, when I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. It was my mom.

"Percy," She whispered urgently. "Take Grover and run. Get out of here!"

"No way Mom!" I retorted. "I can take this guy, let me handle it."

I knew that I could do it. I could save my mom from Hades. Ignoring her protests I charged the monster head on.

The big ugly guy had more brain cells than I thought, because when I ran at him, he sped up and we collided. I was thrown across the road closer to the entrance of camp. Even though my vision was blurred and I was pretty sure that I had a concussion, I kept going, I had to win his fight. I grabbed for my sword, but found that my hand was grabbing at empty space. I cursed everything. I was going to have to win this the old school way.

I ran around, shouting insults to confuse the monster. Once I had its full attention, I set to work.

We fell into a pattern. I shout, it charges, I sidestep, and shout some more. Riptide was taking forever to reappear. After every cycle of _shout charge sidestep_, I felt my pocket to see if my trusty sword had returned.

Suddenly, after what was probably the tenth or eleventh round of the cycle, I realized that I had made a terrible mistake. The entire time that we had been fighting. The Monster had been getting us to closer and closer to my mother and Grover. Maybe not intentionally, but I still had allowed it to happen.

I needed to do something drastic, so I skipped the shouting and ran at it, my fingers slipped into my pockets and the grasped he body of a pen. I smiled to myself. _He wouldn't know what hit him._

I kept my hand inside my pocket, my fingers closed around my sword. I was sprinting and the Minotaur was galloping. Both of us going at full speed. Riptide was fully out of my pocket. I braced myself the collision, but it never came. I was shoved out of the way by some force and thrown to the grass right next to Grover.

I quickly struggled to my feet and turned around to see the horrifyingly recognizable image of my mother shattering into a billion golden sparks.

My brain was having a hard time processing all of it, but my body wasn't I reached into my pocket, and brought out my sword. With a scream of anger I threw Riptide, javelin-style.

It sailed through the air, passing clean through the beast's head. It had been running at me when the sword was thrown and when it disintegrated, I was covered in a shower of monster dust.

I couldn't feel relieved. The dust reminded me of my mother, even though I knew that I would get her back, it still felt horrible to see it happen.

I felt numb as I walked over to pick up Grover. He still was out cold and I had to drag him towards the entrance to camp. I kept in mind that the Minotaur wasn't the only monster attempting to kill us that night.

We didn't exactly make it. A few yards away from the tree, my feet collapsed from under me. I might've lay there for several minutes in a daze before I saw the face of Chiron and a very familiar girl, with princess like curls staring down at me.

"Chiron," Annabeth said. "Let's get him inside."

I was frustrated. I could go until I knew if it was _my_ Annabeth or the past Annabeth.

"Annabeth," Chiron whispered. "Take him inside. I'm going to get an Apollo camper."

The frustration continued. Who was she!

Annabeth bent down to pick me up and the last thing I remember before blacking out was her soft hand touching my face and a quiet murmur of, "Seaweed Brain."

I drifted off happily.


	7. Chapter 7

In my dreams, I saw visions of all kinds of things. Mostly it just looked like a home video featuring different parts of my life. I saw the first time I got kicked out of a school, and the most recent time that I kissed Annabeth. She was a recurring image in the 'delusional Percy's montage.' Sometimes her face was just shimmering in my unconscious mind, and other times I would see small "clips" of her laughing and smiling or absentmindedly pushing back a loose strand of hair like she did when she was absorbed in something.

I wasn't asleep the entire time. In my waking moments, I was nursed, with what was probably nectar, by Annabeth. When she was sure that we were alone, she would whisper soft things in my ear and run her fingers through my hair. The fact that I wasn't alone in my quest made any pain go away quickly, just leaving me in a discombobulated state.

When I finally _really _started coming to, I tried to sit up. I failed miserably.

"Annabeth." I mumbled. The words came out as more of an "Amabet" and most likely made me sound drunk.

Annabeth quickly shoved more nectar into my mouth and when I was slightly more conscious, she tilted her head in the direction of Argus. Not all of his eyes were observing our exchange, but she obviously wanted to get her message across. 'I'm not supposed to know you' She left the chair where I was seated and walked towards the Athena cabin.

I took in the lush hills and the distinct strawberry aroma. I had officially made it home.

The glass of nectar on the stand next to me was calling my name. I knew that I'd already had too much, but I ignored the reasonable thoughts and reached for the cup.

"Careful," came the voice of Grover.

"Styx... I mean shoot!" I cursed as the glass slipped through my fingers onto the floor where the golden liquid spilled onto a daisy plant. My ADHD wondered how that would affect the growth of the plant. I sure didn't want to add mutating vegetation to my list of 'things I have to fight' list.

Grover gave me a funny look but otherwise ignored my lapse in character.

"You know that too much will burn you up." He said matter-of-factly.

It was hard to bite back a sarcastic remark about how _of course_ I knew the dangers of over-consumption of godly fluids due to the fact that I had sat through many a lecture from Chiron, Annabeth, and just about every single Apollo medic in camp. Instead I went for an annoyed/confused (an unlikely combination, I know) shrug.

Grover meekly handed me a shoe box. Inside was the black-and-white Minotaur horn that I had always kept on my wall since the day I'd arrived.

I figured now would be a good time to start asking questions. I began with the ones that I actually needed to know.

"How long was I out?"

He looked surprised that _that _was the first question I'd enquired about.

"It's Sunday."

That meant I'd been out for a whole day! That was my only real question for the time being so I moved on to the boring ones.

"Where am I?"

"Camp-Half-Blood. The only safe place for people like you."

Looking back, it was blatantly obvious as to what Camp-Half-Blood was, just from the title and the fact that I knew that my best friend and the bull who had kidnapped my mother were both Greek 'mythological' creatures. What was one more myth? I still kept going.

"What do you mean 'people like me?'"

"Come on Percy," he sighed. "I'll show you. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

He trotted into the house and I leaped up to follow him. The blood went rushing to my head and I had to grab the edge of the porch railing to keep myself from taking a spill just like my drink.

I ran around the side and saw that Grover had already entered the Big House. It was a good thing _I _knew where it was.

When I got to the door, I stopped. It was as beautiful as ever. The dining pavilion and the campfire amphitheater were sparkling white in the afternoon sun. Campers were running around on pegasi and heading towards the arena with their weapons for a mid-afternoon tournament.

I turned my attention to the three people around the pinochle table. Chiron, Mr. D, and Annabeth. Chiron's back was facing me. He seemed immersed in the card game. Mr. D was glaring boredly at me. Annabeth was giving me a cute little smirk as if to say 'this should be fun.'

Of course Grover had to introduce me to each person at the table.

"This is Mr. D, the camp Director, be nice to him." He whispered giving a secretive wave of his hand to show me who the fat guy in the tiger-print Hawaiian shirt was.

"The girl is Annabeth. Also be nice to her. For some reason she's been stressed over the past few months."

_Awww, _I thought, _she missed me_.

Annabeth's smirk turned into a small smile and the smile turned into a mischievous one. She opened her mouth like she was about to say something like _hey who's the cute new guy_ or something sweet like that. I must not know my girlfriend very well because when she spoke the only thing she said was.

"You drool when you sleep," and she walked off of the porch towards the arena. There was laughter in her voice and I remembered why. She had told me that the first year here.

Grover looked at me strangely. "Ooookay you must've caught her on a good day. Watch out, she isn't normal like that. Anyway, you've already met Chiron."

He turned his head and I did my best to act surprised.

"Mr. Brunner!" I cringed at the horribleness of my acting.

"You don't seem too surprised Percy." Chiron said.

"Uh…I am surprised… I just… am uh… so surprised that I'm overwhelmed by it." It was too late that I remembered that I had used the same lame excuse with Grover who had only bought it because he had been terrified for his life.

All Chiron said was "…I see." Then he continued onto his speech.

"You are probably wondering what this place is."

"I think that it's pretty obvious." I know that I shouldn't have said that, but it came out so I had to roll with it.

"What do you mean my boy?" Chiron queried.

"Well the Greek architecture, the Greek monsters, and all of the other Greek stuff. All of this stuff is from myths right?" I didn't wait for affirmation. I knew I was spot on.

"So I'm guessing-stop me if I'm wrong- all of the Greek myths are _true" _

There was a moment of silence that was worth any profanities that the gods from the future were probably shouting at me for.

"W-well Percy," Chiron stuttered trying to regain his composure. I bet that he wasn't expecting an obviously-not-son-of-Athena child to figure it out on his own. He continued. "You are my first student _ever_ to have figured that out. Yes you were quite right. But do you know what this exact camp is for?"

I'd had my moment, so I gave the normal answer. "I couldn't figure that one out sir."

"Well if _all_ of the myths are true, than the myths about gods are true also. No?"

"Yesss…"

"And what did the gods do most in the myths?"

"Make kids?"

"Correct, so now what do you think this camp is for."

Mr. D cut in. "Oh stop talking all cryptically and getting him to answer!" he spluttered. "This 'beautiful' 'camp' is for the dratted children of the gods!"

"Oh…" was all I could say.

"Yes Mr. D is quite right." Chiron seemed sad that he had passed up a good teaching opportunity.

It was silent for a bit while the two finished their game. Chiron won as usual. I remembered the time he had tried to teach me the game. I had almost gotten the gist of it. Almost.

Chiron kept wheeling his chair toward Cabin eleven and tried to teach me more stuff about Greek myths. We stood in front of the Hermes Cabin and I figured it was time to ask the question Chiron thought that I was dying to know.

"So what part do you play in all of this?"

He smiled at me and rose. It had been weird to see him in a wheelchair, but I had gotten used to it over the past few months. His legs elongated until they turned into horse hooves and his backside morphed into a flank. It all happened so suddenly that I didn't even have to act surprised.

"Oh my gods!" I muttered, mostly because I fell back onto my butt.

He smiled at me and picked me up so we could meet my fellow campers.


End file.
